1888 — Dec 24, Steamer John H. Hanna Burns, Mississippi River, Plaquemine, LA –21-25

–21-25 Blanchard estimated death toll.*

— 30 Boston Post. “A Steamboat Burned.” 12-26-1888, p. 1, col. 5.**
— 30 Chautauquan, “Summary of Important News for Dec., 1888,” V9, N1, Oct 1888, p. 318.
–20-30 Opelousas Courier. “Dreadful Catastrophes.” 12-29-1888, p. 1.
— 25 Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. “Twenty-Four Lives Lost.” 12-27-1888, p. 2.***
— 25 Daily Journal, Logansport, IN. “The Year’s Disasters,” Jan 2, 1889, p. 4.
–21-25 St. Joseph Herald, MI. “West and South,” and “Many Lives Lost.” 12-29-1888, p. 1.
— 23 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 688.
— 22 Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats…[MS Riv. Sys.]… 1999, 252.
— 21 Boston Post. “A Steamboat Burned.” 12-26-1888, p. 2, col. 6. (Cites the Picayune.)
— 21 Supervising Inspector-General of Steam Vessels. Annual Report…June 30, 1889. P. 25.
— 20 Annual Statistician and Economist 1892 (Vol. 16). L. P. McCarty, 1892. p. 61.
— 20 Evening Herald, Syracuse, NY. “Record of the Year,” 31 Dec 1888, p. 3.

* Blanchard estimated death toll. As one can see from the sources above there is represented a range of twenty to thirty deaths. While it appears to us from a reading of all the sources that the death toll rose to twenty five with the death of James Given (see Cincinnati Commercial Gazette), we are not inclined to ignore the notation of 21 deaths by the annual report of the Supervising Inspector-General of Steam Vessels, or the estimate of twenty-two deaths by Way. Thus we choose to use 21 as the low-end of our estimated death toll and 25 as the high end. In that the report of Given’s deaths notes that there were several other burn victims in the Charity Hospital in New Orleans, it is quite possible that there were other deaths due to burns.

**Boston Post: “….It is stated that of the hundred persons on board only fourteen are known to have been saved….About thirty persons perished in the flames and a large number jumped overboard and were drowned [p.1]….The impression now is that the number of lives lost will not exceed thirty. [p.2]”

***After noting twenty-four deaths, adds that James Givens, one of those mentioned as injured had since died at the Charity Hospital in New Orleans.

Narrative Information

Chautauquan: “December 25. Burning of the Mississippi river steamer John H. Hanna; thirty people burned to death or drowned.” (Chautauquan, Oct 1888, p. 318.)

Supervising Inspector-General of Steam Vessels. “ December 24, 1888. – The steamer John H. Hanna, while descending the Mississippi River with a cargo of cotton, took fore opposite Plaquemine, La., and was totally destroyed. Four passengers and seventeen of her crew were lost.” (Supervising Inspector-General of Steam Vessels. Annual Report of…to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1889. 1889. “Tenth District…Fatal causalities.” p.25.)

Way: John H. Hanna. Sternwheel wood-hull packet, build in Madison, IN, in 1876, measuring 181.2 x 38 x 6.5. “Ran principally New Orleans-Ouachita River. Capt. J.W. Blanks was master….Still in the trade 1885 with Capt. F. A. Blanks, master and J.S. Holmes, clerk. She was downbound at Plaquemine, La., on Dec. 24, 1888 with 3,000 bales when news came of the burning of the Kate Adams, and the Hanna crew found their own boat afire. There was life loss of 22 persons….” (Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats…1999, p. 252.)

Newspapers

Dec 26, Boston Post: “New Orleans, La., Dec. 25. – The steamboat John H. Hanna, from Ouachita River, with a large number of passengers and a cargo of 2500 bales of cotton on board, was burned last night at Plaquemine, It is stated that of the hundred persons on board only fourteen are known to have been saved. The John H. Hanna was built in Madison, Ind., in 1876, and hailed from Louisville, Ky. She was of 377 tonnage and was owned by the Ouachita River Consolidated line. She was valued at $18,000, but was insured for only $12,000, on local and foreign companies. The officers of the boat are as follows: Captain J. S. Holmes, master; S. R. Powell, first clerk; James V. Jordan, second clerk; Henry Jolles and Louis Rawlings, pilots; William Hanley, first engineer; Daniel Carroll, steward.

“A special dispatch from Plaquemine to the States says: The burning of the steamer John H. Hanna last night near this place was one of the most terrible river disasters that has ever happened in Southern waters. The loss of live was very heavy. About thirty persons perished in the flames and a large number jumped overboard and were drowned. Among the lost are Captain J. S. Holmes, and the first clerk, Samuel R. Powell. Their bodies have been recovered. Captain Holme’s body was terribly burned. Bob Smith, the old pilot of the J. M. White at the time she was burned, and was a passenger on the John H. Hanna and was burned to death. His body has also been recovered. One of the deck hands, who escaped, says there were about 100 persons on board and that only about a dozen can now be found alive. The engineer and pilot were saved. All were more or less burned, some of them severely.

“The fine steamer was coming down the river just before day dawned. Several of the passengers were seated in the cabin having a merry time. Many of the crew and passengers were asleep when the fire broke out and spread with indescribable rapidity. The details of the sufferings and death of some of the passengers are harrowing in the extreme. The boat had reached a point which was but a short distance above the town when a negro roustabout near the boiler room ran out to the deck and shouted that the boat was on fire. John Cullen, a stoker, was near the place at the time, and seeing the flames bursting forth from the big tiers of cotton near the boiler, ran hastily to the engine room and gave the alarm. Engineer Merriman at once sounded the alarm by blowing the steam whistle and ringing the bells. In an instant, certainly in a much shorter time than it takes to explain it, the flames shot through the cabin and over the sides of the cotton, enveloping the entire boat in fire. Clerk Powell was upstairs at the time, and when he saw the flames he heroically ran through the smoke which filled the cabin and tried to arouse the sleeping people. He kicked at the doors and in a short time almost everybody was awake. Then confusion worse confounded appeared, and frantic people on the boat ran to different exits to make their escape, but the boat was piled high with cotton and the passageways were filled with smoke. Many dropped before they were able to get to the forward part of the boat, and were dead when the steamer went down.

“As soon as the fire was discovered Engineer Merriman set the steam pumps working and tried to battle with the flames, but the fire swept through the boat like a blaze on a prairie, and the engine room was soon in flames. Then, to add further to the consternation, a steam pipe burst and filled the place with scalding steam. Engineer Merriman was forced to abandon his post, and he and the stokers and others ran to the sides of the boat and climbed through pell-mell in order to save their lives. As soon as the smoke and flames began to shoot through the sides of the boat, Captain Jolles, the pilot, swung the wheel around and headed the boat for the shore. A full head of steam was on at the time, and the boat was soon run into the bank. Before she did so, however, she was doomed. All of her timber was then furiously burning. When the Hanna struck the bank she bounded away again and swung around, drifting down as she burned. Then Captain Jolles jumped out over the cotton bales and springing into the river swam ashore.

“The sight was a weird one, viewed from the bank, and the town was aroused. Floating cotton, charred timbers and other debris filled the river, and many people were struggling desperately in the water for their lives. Some of them were able to swim ashore, but most of them were so badly burned or so thoroughly exhausted that they struggled but a few moments and sank to rise no more. As the burning boat struck the bank of the river, the crew and passengers who had been able to reach the forward end of the boat sprang ashore, some of them with scorched faces and bruised limbs, and many of them with scarcely any covering. Captain Holmes, in his frantic desire to be relieved from the pain he was suffering, buried his face and hands in the soft mud and begged most piteously for help. Bob Smith was just behind, and was laid out by the side of the dying captain. Nothing could be done for the suffering men, and the two died together on the river bank.

“The struggling unfortunates who reached the shore were taken car of, and doctors and others came to their assistance and tried to alleviate their sufferings. The City and Central hotels and private houses threw open their doors to the ill-fated people, and fed and clothed them until this morning. No one saw Clerk Powell, who displayed much heroism in waking up the passengers, after he had rapped at the doors, and it is quite certain that he was burned to death, and went down with the steamer. No attempt was made to save any of the steamer’s books or papers, and everything, together with the clothes and crew of the passengers, was lost. The boat burned rapidly after she reached the bank, and in a very short time after the alarm was given she had burned to the water’s edge. The hull sank, and nothing was left of the Hanna but floating timber and burning cotton.

“Among those that were lost are: Captain J. S. Holmes, master of the boat; Samuel Powell, chief clerk; Bob Smith, a pilot from Smithland, La.; Mike O’Neil, night watchman; Joe Crane, cabin watchman; Monroe Deck, first cook; Jack Duff, second cook; Joe Harvey, cabin boy; Jim Watson, second baker; John Grafton, carpenter. Among those who were badly burned are: Dan Carroll, steward; Jim O’Neil, deck hand; John Gibbons, sailor man; Louis Welch, roustabout, and a number of others.

“Coming down on the boat as passengers were a number of the crew of the steamer Josie W., all of whom were saved. The survivors were all warm in their praise of the people of Plaquemine, who spared no pains and no money to furnish them with clothes and shelter after their terrible experience. W. L. Brule, Mayor of the city, was especially kind to the survivors. None of he men could say what was the origin of the fire. The general impression, however, is that some careless smoker threw a cigarette among the cotton bales and thereby caused the disaster. The death of John Grafton, carpenter, was a sad one. He was in the upper portion of the boat, struggling to get near the front end. The flames were twisting and sweeping all about him. He tried nobly to reach the bow, but he dropped and burned to death before the eyes of the people who were not able to render him any help. The second bar-keeper of the boat said Mr. Powell was standing near him when they both jumped into the water. Powell, who could not swim, climbed on a floating cotton bale, but two deck hands also jumped on the bale, turning it over and throwing Powell into the water, and he disappeared. The boat was about fifteen yards from the shore when a great many people plunged into the river, and several who reached the bank in safety became bogged in the soft mud, and so intense was the heat of the burning boat that they were burned to death before they could climb up the steep bank to the levee. The fire was so rapid that before the pilot had finished sounding three alarm whistles the entire boat from stem to stern was a roaring mass of flames, and the scene that ensued was terrible in the extreme. Men jelled and ran about the decks of the steamer like maniacs, and others, screaming at the top of their voices, threw themselves into the dark waters and were lost to sight in the twinkle of an eye. The second barkeeper said that several persons near him struggled in the water and begged pitifully for help, but he could not render them any assistance, because the water chilled him to the marrow and his clothing clogged his every movement. A cabin boy who was an assistant to the steward said that the crew, who were in the ‘texas,’ were aroused from their slumbers by the flames which roared over them, and they were compelled to dive headlong from the roof of the boat into the river, and many of them were burned to death while in the water. The impression now is that the number of lives lost will not exceed thirty.

“A special dispatch to the Times-Democrat from Plaquemine gives the following account of the death of Captain Holmes: The brave captain, a resident of New Orleans, met with most awful death. He remained at his post of duty till every chance to save the lives of his passengers was gone. Then he leaped into the water to swim for the shore, but it happened to be boggy, and he was seen to make frantic endeavors to extricate himself, without avail. The burning boat was fast nearing him, and while he was on his knees in the mud he put his hands up to protect his back from the intense heat. It was an awful moment for those on shore, who were making every endeavor to relieve him with skiffs and ropes from the bank. One man went out to him and placed a box between him and the flames to protect him from the increasing heat. He said: ‘Never mind me. I’ll be dead in a few minutes anyway.’ He was finally freed from his terrible situation by tying a rope around his body and dragging him onshore, but it was too late. He died in about half an hour after being rescued. The body of Chief Clerk Powell was in a perfect state of preservation. There were no marks of any kind upon it. He had on a life preserver, which was partly burned. It is supposed he died of suffocation. A short time previous to the alarm of fire Powell was conversing with Willie Higgins, barkeeper, about the burning of the Kate Adams, which Higgins had just finished reading. On being told that fifty lives were lost, Powell said: ‘I can’t understand how so many lives can be lost when land is so near.’ Half an hour later he was a corpse floating down the river.

“The Picayune’s Plaquemine special places the number known to be lost by the Hanna disaster as five whites and sixteen colored.” (Boston Post. “A Steamboat Burned.” 12-26-1888, p. 1, col. 5, and p. 2.)

Dec 27, Cincinnati Commercial Gazette: “St. Louis, Mo., December 26. – A special to the Republic from New Orleans places the total loss of life by the burning of the steamer Hanna at twenty-four. Of the injured men in the hospital four or five will die, among them Givens, the sailor, who was the hero of the disaster. His face is horribly burned, nose gone and eyes burned out, his left arm completely burned away and left side and leg charred. The funeral of the victims took place to-day, the flags of steamers in the harbor being at half-mast. Bob Smith, the pilot who lost his life, was a famous man on the river, and regarded himself as unlucky. He was on the R. E. Lee when she burned; on the White when there was great loss of life, and on the Hanna, when she caught fire some years ago, but was not destroyed. There were rumors to-day that the fire was of incendiary origin. Steamers coming down yesterday reported the river near Plaquemine filled with floating, burning bales of cotton. The Pargoud could not land at Plaquemine owing to the burning cotton.

“James Givens, of the John H. Hanna, died at Charity Hospital to-night.

“The funeral of Captain Holmes took place to-day.

“The remains of Clerk Powell were sent to his home in Columbia, La. The remains of Pilot Bob Smith were buried in the Catholic Cemetery at Plaquemine.” (Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. “Twenty-Four Lives Lost.” 12-27-1888, p. 2.)

Dec 27, Decatur Saturday Herald, IL: “Plymouth, Mass., Dec. 27. – Captain J. S. Holmes, who commanded the steamer John H. Hanna, and who was burned to death at the destruction of his steamer at Plaquemine, was a native of this town. His brother, Captain Curtis Holmes, still lives here. Since the age of seventeen Captain J. S. Holmes had been in the steamboat service I the South.” (Decatur Saturday Herald, IL. “Captain Holmes a Native of Plymouth Mass.” 12-29-1888, p. 14.)

Sources

Annual Statistician and Economist 1892. San Francisco and New York: L. P. McCarty, 1892. Vol. 16. Google digitized. Accessed 9-7-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=ealXAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Boston Post. “A Steamboat Burned.” 12-26-1888, p. 1, col. 5. Accessed 9-15-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-post-dec-26-1888-p-1/

Chautauqua Institution. “Summary of Important News for August, 1888,” Chautauquan, Vol. 9, No. 1, Oct 1888, p 64. At: http://books.google.com/books?id=UMnmAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. “Twenty-Four Lives Lost.” 12-27-1888, p. 2. Accessed 9-15-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/cincinnati-commercial-gazette-dec-27-1888-p-2/

Daily Journal, Logansport, IN. “The Year’s Disasters.” 1-2-1889, p. 4. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=83142306

Decatur Saturday Herald, IL. “Captain Holmes a Native of Plymouth Mass.” 12-29-1888, p. 14. Accessed 9-15-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/decatur-saturday-herald-dec-22-1888-p-14/

Evening Herald, Syracuse, NY. “Record of the Year – Principal Events That Have Occurred in the World,” 12-31-1888, 3. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=51376727

Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.

Opelousas Courier. “Dreadful Catastrophes.” 12-29-1888, p. 1. Accessed 9-15-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/opelousas-courier-dec-29-1888-p-1/

St. Joseph Herald, MI. “West and South,” and “Many Lives Lost.” 12-29-1888, p. 1. Accessed 9-15-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/st-joseph-herald-press-dec-29-1888-p-1/

Supervising Inspector-General of Steam Vessels. Annual Report of the Supervising Inspector-General of Steam-Vessels to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1889. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1889. Accessed 9-15-2020 at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu09189980&view=1up&seq=195

Way, Frederick Jr. (Author and Compiler), Joseph W. Rutter (contributor). Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats of the Mississippi River System Since the Advent of Photography in Mid-Continent America (Revised). Athens OH: Ohio University Press, 1999.